Oleg Mikheyev of the Fair Russia parliamentary faction says that
Japan’s position over the recent events in Ukraine and Crimea are
“illogical”.

Japan’s Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida expressed regret over
Crimea’s secession from Ukraine and called upon Russian leaders
to withdraw acceptance of the republic’s sovereignty. He also
announced that Japan was introducing sanctions against Russia,
such as freezing talks on softening the visa regime, on
investment, on space exploration, and on an agreement to prevent
dangerous military activities.

In his letter to the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov MP
Mikheyev blasted the Japanese step as “an attempt of
undisguised pressure over issues that have no relation to the
situation in Ukraine and to the situation with the
Russian-speaking population in Ukraine and Crimea.”

“When Crimean residents chose to join the Russian Federation,
the United States and the European Union replied with sanctions.
The European Union did so because Ukraine intended to sign an
association agreement with it, and the United States did so
because it is a leading member of NATO. However, Japan’s decision
to impose sanctions in reply to Crimea’s accession seems
illogical to me, to put it mildly,” the mass circulation
daily Izvestia quoted Mikheyev as saying.

“If Japan is throwing a spanner in the works of our diplomacy
in Ukraine and at the same time hopes to continue with a
diplomatic settlement of the Kuril Islands issue, this is their
harsh mistake,” the politician emphasized in his letter.

Russia and Japan are in dispute over four of the southernmost
islands in the Kuril Archipelago that fell under Soviet control
after WW2. The territorial dispute prevented the two countries
from signing a peace treaty and relations are still regulated
under the armistice.

However, both nations were showing goodwill in recent years with
Japan offering investment possibilities and a lax visa regime to
the residents of the islands, and Russia suggesting protection
for investors and special favorable conditions for Japanese
businesses.

In November 2013 Russia and Japan held their first joint
conference between defense and foreign ministers. The officials
agreed to strengthen bilateral cooperation, especially in the
field of maritime security, and drafted plans for joint naval
exercises to combat terrorism and piracy.